Salteñas

Salteñas

Here is our recipe for the beloved Salteña. We make ours with chicken, potatoes and peas but you can switch the chicken for beef and pair it with beef broth for an equally delicious variation.

A salteña is what you see above, it is the image in our header, it is our favorite food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Salteñas are immensely popular in Fabio’s home country – Bolivia, they are probably as close as you will get to a Bolivian national dish as they are one of the only foods that are enjoyed in all corners of the country. Also, no one has ever tried a salteña and not loved it… probably…

The appeal of the salteña to me is that it is so many things at the same time… To start with it is a sweet pastry, and it is filled with a sweet and spicy broth made with aji amarillo (yellow pepper) and the filling has chicken, potatoes, veggies, a slice of hard boiled egg and either an olive or a few raisins. Comfort food at its finest.

After countless batches of trial and error, this is our version to share with you. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do! Provecho!

The recipe as typed below makes 18 large salteñas. The recipe for the filling and the dough can easily be halved to make 9-10 saltenas – this is the quantity shown in our photos.

Instructions

Dice the potato and add it to a pot of boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes, you don’t want the potatoes to be soft or they will fall apart in the broth, they will still cook a bit longer once they are added to the rest of the ingredients. After 5 minutes, drain the potatoes and set aside / Cortar la papa en cuadritos y agregarlos al agua hirviendo por 5 minutos, las papas no deben estar tan blandas esto es debido a que van a seguir ser cocinadas luego.

Boil the chicken breasts in a pot of water until they are completely cooked through, let cool and then shred the meat into small pieces. Set aside / Poner las pechugas de pollo a cocinar hasta que estén listas, luego desmenuzar el pollo y poner de lado.

The gelatin will partially set the broth mixture as it sits and cools in the fridge. Technically this is all you need to do before filling and sealing the salteñas, however, as working with the dough and the wet broth mixture can be difficult I have devised an alternate method. I construct tinfoil molds in the shape of salteñas and line them with plastic wrap then fill them with the broth and freeze them. Once they are completely frozen I can remove them from the plastic wrap and place them directly on to the rolled out dough and seal up with the signature braided twist – the picos. / La gelatine hará efecto cuando la mezcla este fría. Técnicamente esto es todo lo que se necesita para terminar las salteñas pero es muy dificil hacer esto cuando la mezcla está húmeda, por lo tanto hay un método el cual puede ayudarte. Puedes hacer moldes de papel aluminio y colocar la mezcla en ellos, poner en el congelador y así cuando quires ponerlos a la masa la mezcla estara moldeada y dura, será mucho más fácil, te lo recomiendo.

Whether you use this method (tinfoil molds) or the original (freestyle) make sure to include a slice of hard boiled egg, as well as a pitted olive (or a few raisins) before sealing the dough. The egg, olive, and raisins you can adjust based on your own taste. Previously I have been a firm believer that salteñas just had to be made with an olive, however the last time we made them as we didnt have any on hand we threw in some raisins instead and I’ve come around to the other side I think. Fabio still requires an olive in his… / Si utilizas este método (moldes de papel de aluminio) o el original (estilo libre), asegúrese de incluir una rodaja de huevo duro, así como una aceituna (o algunas pass) a su gusto antes de sellar la masa.

Ingredients (dough)

4 cups flour / harina

1/2 cup sugar / azúcar

1/2 tsp salt / sal

2 eggs / huevos

1 stick (half cup) butter / mantequilla

about 1 cup of warm water / agua tibia

Instructions

In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl Lightly beat the egg and in a small saucepan melt the butter. Add all this to the flour mix with some warm water (approx 1 cup) and mix well until it forms a dough / En un contenedor mezclar la harina, azúcar y sal. En otro contenedor batir el huevo suavemente y en una olla derretir la mantequilla. Agregar todo esto a la mezcla de harina con un poco de agua tibia (aproximadamente 1 taza) mezclar bien hasta que tome la forma de una masa

In order to obtain the traditional color for our salteñas we use a natural colorant from Bolivia called Urucu. As you cannot get these little pebbles outside of Santa Cruz, if you are after the signature saltenas shade – add some yellow food coloring when you melt the butter

Take a frozen mold of saltena filling from the freezer or a large scoop of the gelatine set filling and place it in the middle of the dough being sure to include some raisins/olives/sliced egg, wet the edges of the pastry and close together sealing the filling inside well, pinching and twisting the edges to ensure a strong seal. This is a very important step as how well you close the saltenas will determine whether or not they open in the oven later when you are baking them. / Tomar un molde congelado de salteña del congelador o una cucharada grande del relleno con gelatina y lo colocar en el medio de la masa y asegúrese de incluir algunas pasas / aceitunas / rodajas de huevo, mojar los bordes de las salteñas y cierre, pellizcar y retorcer los bordes para asegurar un sellado fuerte.

Once the oven is at its maximum temperature, add the saltenas to the pan, brush with a beaten egg (for shine) and place in the oven until the salteñas are browned (approx 15 minutes) if the tops are browning too quickly, place another sheet of tinfoil overtop and continue cooking. You want to be sure that the filling is completely heated through. / Pintar las salteñas con un huevo batido para poner brillo y colocarlas al horno bien caliente hasta que hayan cambia do de color (apróx. 15 minutos)

A batch of Halloween Salteñas ready for the oven! (confession – we used red food coloring this batch (pre-urucu) and learned that if you are using food coloring it is better to go with yellow – unless it’s halloween of course.